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Barn/house security

My horse (16.2h OTTB) would get caught sneaking through the people-door into the 12x10 overstuffed tack room in search of horse cookies. The most important thing in his life.

If the spider had been capturing and eating an insect, it would probably already be viral.

This is the answer.

My large black leaping barking lab may scare some, but others say “yeah no he’s a lab” as the dog follows them to the door while grinning and wagging “look a new friend !!!”

A chihuahua … that’s harder.

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I received an inexpensive trail cam for Christmas, less than $100. I am still playing with it for the optimal settings, (photo resolution, video resolution, video length, photo burst, trigger frequency, time of operation, etc.) but it is good video and triggers to motion pretty well.

I wanted it to see animals in my backyard creek, but I think I will ultimately have it at the boarding barn to cover my tack room and horses. it takes a microSD card and you can play it back in the camera, but it is hard to see anything, so I will retrieve the card and view on my desktop.

I agree that a deterrent would be better, so it needs to be mounted high enough not to be stolen, and visible enough to discourage opportunistic people.

I think they can be a reasonable security aid when your stuff is out of wifi range.

I am pleasantly surprised at how long the batteries are lasting as I experiment!

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Around here, stolen and prowled vehicles often lead to other better crimes, such as ID theft, fraud, etc :grin:

I have the Arlo wireless system around my house and at my gate, which covers my mailbox (doesn’t always catch the delivery) and package drop off, plus anyone who enters my driveway between the road and my electric gate. It’s how I caught the neighbor girl screaming shut up at my dog while also teasing him by running back and forth, and calling him stupid, while she was waiting for her school bus. Her shocked face was lovely when I confronted her about it. It also covers in front of my garage where I park my vehicles and the garage door itself, which is an easy thing to open. Because of that, my house design specifically does NOT have a man door from inside the garage to inside the house; there have been numerous burgs were the bad guy pops the garage door and then slides it back shut, and has ample time to use your own tools to breach the man door into the house (if people even bother to lock it). Other cameras cover my glass slider and back porch, my front porch and door, and then I have a “floater” that I put in places I want to observe - I thought someone might have been stealing chicken eggs recently so I put one out at the coop, for example.

At the barn I have 10 cameras in a hardwired system covering my equipment barn, my barn aisle from two directions, inside my tackroom, under the leanto, the street where I have a paddock fence come closest within say throwing a treat distance but still double fenced, and a pole with three that cover my sacrifice paddock, the two main paddocks, and my arena. Overkill perhaps, but we had a scare last year when some of us at work got doxxed, and early last year I had someone cut my perimeter fence and steal a gas can. The brand is Swann, it’s…okay. The wireless connection seems to be a known issue and getting it to stay connected to the app is spotty at best but the video quality is excellent and I have the DVR camouflaged in the tackroom.

Perimeter fence, keep your things locked up, cameras are nice, motion lights are great, dogs that bark are good, be diligent and unconventional in your habits.

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I have read that the door from the garage to the house is a primary means of unauthorized entry. Precisely because many people don’t lock it.

When I’ve mentioned this I’ve had people say happily “oh I would see anyone who tried to sneak into the garage while I was parking my car there”. Oh really? Are you a professional burglar, then? You’re not? But you know more about how to get inside houses than a professional burglar?

I doubt they ever change, though. Keeps burglars in business.

“Roughly 10% of all burglaries are carried out via entry through the garage, and this is made possible by the fact that many homeowners leave garage doors open all the time. In some cases, homeowners also leave the door between the garage and the home unlocked as well, providing an open invitation to burglary. The chances of this kind of burglary taking place can be significantly reduced simply by securing both doors”

My goodness! This makes me so thankful for where I am living. I leave the keys in my trucks and tractor, and the tack room has never been locked. I do have a driveway alarm, but that is for knowing when to go to the door to greet delivery drivers.

All these posts make me sad for those of you who have to live where you need alarms and cameras. :frowning_face:

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I don’t know where you live, but in all honesty you are placing yourself in a very unsafe situation. Nowhere on earth is THAT safe. Nowhere.

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I just refuse to allow the home security industries to prey on me and make me live out my life with constant suspicion and in fear.

Living in a horse community with a single entrance and exit and being surrounded by over a hundred busybodies monitoring everyones’ goings and comings does help though.

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Didn’t mention them. What does the home securities industry have to do with simply locking up and being safety conscious? You don’t need the home securities industry for that.

I just think that if you knew more about the type of crime that comes to rural areas, you would be more self-protective. But it’s your life, though, of course.

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Guess I’ll grab old Betsy and mosey up to the barn to lock everything up before the horse thieves arrive.

In case you didn’t know, 17 year old Davy Crockett named his first rifle Betsy. He later traded the rifle for a “courting horse.”

Just a bit of trivia to lighten things up a bit.

Some people will be an offended victim before they learn anything. IME.

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There is just no understanding “some people.”

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I have a solar powered driveway alarm on our main entrance and one on the back steps up to our big deck. I also have 3 noisy dogs.

I don’t have strong enough internet at home for Eufy or other cameras, I do leverage 2 Tactacam reveal cameras with a data package, I can see via notification on my phone if anyone comes in our lower trail and when we leave town I put the other on the main driveway. The delivery guy who brought our excavator took out our driveway gate when he left, lol, we haven’t bothered to replace it.

The tack room has a hidden camera in it, mostly to see who my visiting kitties are who come in via my cat door. Right now it’s Church Kitty and Floofy Tail.

I don’t “worry” per se but there’s enough meth and other addiction and deeeeep poverty around this county; my house is set back from the road and nothing much is visible on driving by, but that is a mixed blessing. Nosy neighbors would not know if anything was amiss. We do tell a couple of very lovely neighbors if we go put of town, and they drop in as needed and we use a farm sitter to come feed.

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We have a Ring camera on the front door which catches anyone driving up. We just installed a second one of the north end of the house which catches anyone driving back to barn 100’ behind the house.

We have motion lights strategically placed so it’s “hands free” lighting going to the barn. Additionally we have hard wired lights that could land a Stealth bomber. My veterinarian appreciates them on the odd night call.

Rural crime comes in spits and piddles in our area. We use common sense safety measures that mostly would alert us to how bad the breach is if someone gets to point “X”. It makes for a comfortable way to live.

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Those are the communities they hit. Naive farm owners, easy toys to grab.

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@Simkie We have the orbi mesh with a Wyze camera (just one because we wanted to trial before getting more) and have issues with the orbi in the barn. It works until the weather gets cold (at least that appears to be the issue). Do you have any similar issues?

Batteries don’t work well in the cold. These things often seem to shut down in cold weather to prevent damage to the solar panel or battery.

Here’s some info about it:

I don’t think it’s a connection problem. Is there a reason why you think that’s the issue rather than the battery?

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